Trying new woodworking skills #13: Fixing one mistake, creating another

I posted earlier how I cut unneeded mortises in four table legs. Well today I started fixing this error. I decided to cut the motises and plug them with bow-tie keys. The legs are white oak. The keys are walnut.

Now the mortise.

Gluing it in place.

Protect the sides and cut with a flush saw.

Well shoot, this didn’t work too well. The saw dug in. I had trouble controlling it’s path. I’m sure it’s operator error. Unfortunately it may be too deep to sand. I’m not sure how I’ll fix it. (suggestions welcome)

When I’m stumped I move on. Below is the second mortise to repair. I cut the mortise with a little more care. I made a clean shelf for the key to rest upon.

It fit better so I glued it in place.

This time I used a block plane to make it flush. Then sanded by hand. Looks a lot better.

I would hand plane it down with a small plane that won’t have to flatten the whole leg. Failing that, a scraper as bogey mentioned. If it’s still too deep, mix some walnut dust and glue to make a putty of sorts, then sand flush when dry.